Holiday Road

Buckle up and take off on a journey along America’s highways, visiting diners and motels along the way, in Natalie Jeffcott’s USA road trip series.

1/4

1/4

1/4

Published on 25 September 2012

by Delima Shanti

Share

Road trips are often linked with clichéd imagery of long winding roads, bare landscapes and perhaps the occasional convertible shot. With her grainy colour photographs, which are showing in the form of exhibition Holiday Road, Melbourne photographer Natalie Jeffcott bucks the trends and captures scenes often missed as the typical road tripper dozes off in the backseat of the car.

Taken during her own cross-country trip across the USA, Jeffcott discovers remnants of the past left by the side of deserted roads: abandoned gas stations, old school diners and graveyards adorned with neon.

These blink-and-you’ll-miss-it landscapes and architectures can’t help but draw the viewer’s eye. They take you along the long winding highways, except this time you’re given the time to slow down and admire weird and wonderful scenery that would usually pass on by.

Scenes include a Flintstones theme park in the middle of the desert, faded motel signs selling ‘American hospitality’ and a lonely gang of cartoon characters grinning near the back door of a nondescript establishment. These are the forgotten mundane moments and the overlooked scenarios not registered in your travel journal.

Her exhibition, opening for Melbourne Fringe Festival at Nomofoto in North Melbourne, will transport you back to another time and place.

Holiday Road opens on Wednesday September 26 from 6pm to 8pm at Nomofoto and runs until October 13.

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get our pick of the best news, features and events delivered twice a week